Everytime I look at this card I cannot help but think of Cartman from South Park saying, “Respect my authoritaaah!” In most decks, the Hierophant is an illustration of the Pope, who for Catholics is revered as the one to look to for spiritual guidance, blessings and knowledge.

​Smith has illustrated his holiness in full regalia. With one hand he gives a blessing and with the other he holds a triple cross. Two students kneel before him in reverence to receive his blessing and teachings. At his feet are the keys to heaven.

So the thing to ask yourself is does this card represent a figure or an institution in your life that you see as a higher authority or does it represent a position that you are moving into? The Hierophant can symbolize a spiritual Institution or spiritual education and what that means to you personally. It represents more of a sanctioned holiness than a personal spirituality. But it can also represent your own study and accumulation of spiritual knowledge as well as any kind of official seal of approval. Perhaps you just got married, earned your PhD or are publishing a book.

Another thing that the Popish Hierophant always brings to mind is the risk of playing follow the leader, without question, when it comes to spiritual issues. Or the risk a leader others look to for guidance may have to become, complacent, rigid and pompous. The mind, heart and soul deserve more consideration, I think. It doesn’t matter what the religion, when we accept what our ordained leaders and teachings say as the unassailable truth we put ourselves in danger. My post at the beginning of the month about being in a cult is a good example. No one questioned the High Priestess whether out of fear or belief. Some even felt her divinity was a given. Some still do, even with all the carnage left in her wake. This is one of the cautions about organized religion. It is more dogma than darma. The Hierophant does not strictly represent dogmatic, authoritarian belief however. Some decks like The Buckland Romani Tarot represent more of a belief and respect for knowledge than a rigid system.

Instead of a religious icon, The Buckland Romani Tarot Hierophant is a Blacksmith.

"Working with fire and smoke to transform crude iron into tools and weapons, the blacksmith was held in awe in many cultures. His work in iron and bronze was so important that throughout the world the smith was regarded as a magician, a holy man."

"Iron itself has been regarded as near-magical in many cultures and is credited with supernatural powers. In many legends it is the smith who is the healer and the doctor, and it is he who teaches people how to use fire. The smith usually plays a leading role in magic and divination."​- Raymond Buckland

​It's not a bad thing to want to learn from religious or spiritual leaders. Faith can be a marvelous gift. Critical thinking; sifting through what makes sense, checks out and weighing out its value is of utmost importance. Blind faith is what is expected of animals being herded into the chute for slaughter.

If I pull out the little vintage text that Waite wrote, it will give you a whole slew of potential meanings:

To Ponder:

How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.

― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

“I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don’t have as many people who believe it.” ― George Carlin

“Spirituality is not adopting more beliefs and assumptions but uncovering the best in you.” ― Amit Ray, Beautify your Breath - Beautify your Life

When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion. The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute. -----Walter Lippmann

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. -Albert Einstein